Neither Rain Nor Snow

I got to experience first hand yesterday one of the hard aspects of my new postal job. Yesterday, it hit 100 degrees and that didn't take into account the humidity. Summers tend to be very humid in Maryland. If you have high temperatures and low humidity, it isn't that bad being outside. When I was stationed in Texas, people would comment about it being a dry heat. They had a point as it was easier to deal with the high temperatures. Here in Maryland, we have a wet heat and it makes things worse. I wore the Seattle Sonics t-shirt my sister Ellie gave me for the first time. By the time I got back to the Post Office, it was soaked with sweat. Because I was sweating so much, I had to drink a lot of water otherwise I'd have become dehydrated. Lastly, the heat slowed me down in doing my job. When I'm hot and sweaty, I don't have the constant pep that I normally have. The result was it took me longer to deliver the mail. The mail delivery trucks don't have air conditioning which is a downer though to be honest, I don't know if it would help things much. A carrier is constantly getting in and out of the trucks or has the windows down so he/she can insert mail into the mail boxes through their driver side window. The trucks do come with a small fan with variable direction. The fan does help some in that it helps create some air circulation inside the truck. Still, the carrier for the most part is left to swelter. It is one of the aspects of his/her job that they must suck up in order to ensure the mail is delivered. As the old cliche goes, "neither heat nor snow nor driving rain or enormous heat will stop me from delivering the mail." For the Post Office that saying isn't cliche. It is a fact. The Post Office does its best to ensure that no matter what the weather, the mail will be delivered. As a carrier for the Post Office, it is something I'll just have to learn to deal with. Still, it'll be great when fall arrives (sigh).